One thought on “Interview with Dhanya (conclusion)

  1. I enjoyed reading both parts of the interview, Dhanya, which I think I did for the firt time. I liked in particular your statement: “Deep sleep itself is illumined by Consciousness”. There has been some controversy in the past about whether or not there is ignorance in deep sleep, for instance: “ignorance that covers objective knowledge” (Sw. S). If the mind is inoperative, there certainly cannot be objective knowledge. But the state of deep sleep, usually ascribable to an individual jiva, is not different from Atman-Brahman Itself, and is a phenomenon appearing in It, Consciousness, and thus relative as seen from ‘outside’ (from an awake jiva, ‘myself’ or ‘someone’ else.)

    Also, the Upanishadic saying: “Even though all beings attain to Brahman during sleep, the one who knows this fact even during the waking state can alone be said to have attained to It”, can only be an intermediate truth, since there is not ultimate reality to the three states. Consciousness, being the only reality, cannot be said to pass through them, or the states pass through Consciousness. Again, only phenomena, like storms or lightening happening in space. This is my understanding.

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